Fibercore Ltd, Southampton, UK, claims to have made a breakthrough in the development of speciality fibres as part of a two-year R&D project with US FTTH company Scientific Atlanta (SA).

Fibercore has developed a series of rare-earth doped fibres, including erbium- and ytterbium-doped fibre and the first ytterbium-doped cladding-pump laser fibre.

The development of new, application-specific fibre at each stage of the transition towards broadband fibre networks to-the-home will help to cut the cost of services, and increase audience interactivity. This will, in turn, help telecoms and CATV companies like Scientific Atlanta to offer more channels and services, like AOL Time Warner and AT&T in the US and Telewest and NTL in the UK.

Scientific Atlanta's Don Sipes says: "The work with Fibercore has identified a whole new approach to developing speciality fibres for the fibre-to-the-home market. The need for fibre to be developed from the ground will grow, as network performance requirements change, and as improvements in interactivity are demanded by consumers."